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What is the best way to counter when a former sales rep leaves to work for a competitor with all or part of your customer list and lease expiry dates?

I know that you can demand that the sales rep signs a six month non compete clause at the beginning of employment.  This does not prevent him from sharing that info with his new employer.

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So, at least here In the US.  It's my understanding that the information he or she has is confidential information.  When I was going through a buy out with my former partners, I asked my attorney about "that customer" list.  If I had it in my head, that's ok, however if I had taken a list (whether paper based or electronic) that would be considered confidential.  Long story short, they could sue.

Non Competes don't hold up anymore, at least in NC they don't. We have successfully fought many of these with just a simple phone call. When we have a rep that leaves we take everything from them. We also have our lease info on lockdown. It is not in the reps hands. They find out what leases are coming up but they don't know every lease/date they have.

Usually good reps can't afford to leave so the ones who do leave I typically don't worry about too much. 

@SalesServiceGuy we used to have it wide open to where the reps could see the accounts, leases etc but one day I came in and noticed a stack of probably 1,000 pages on a guys desk. I started looking at it and it was print outs of all the customer accounts and lease docs and everything in all the territories. I knew what he was doing because when he came to us he had printouts of everything from his previous place. I took everything from him, shredded it all, and then that's when everything went on lockdown. Now no one gets anything unless it is given to them by management. 

I have been burned by sales reps leaving me to work for competitors for the last time.

I now exclusively manage both my paper and online lease portfolios for my sales reps.  Part of my Monday AM routine is to see what is expiring for the next three months, six months, one year and two years and then distribute the data.

I have flipped a few competitive copiers two years early.

Not only can departing sales reps provide your copier competitors with your customer list but so can departing service technicians.

It is hard to put a service tech on a non compete clause and they know from memory the location of almost every copier that they serviced. A service tech might not know your lease expiry dates but they have a good idea of the install dates and pain points.

Customers often believe service techs more than sales reps.

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